Home Business - How to start a business
I get asked often how I started my successful home business. And I get asked to help others create a successful home business too. So I thought I would write down the steps to starting a home business. My first step is prayer for Gods' direction. THEN........
1. Decide what your niche will be. I finding having a narrow niche for your home business is key. You can not be all things to all people. My home business niche is CHILD SAFETY PRODUCTS. I have a couple small additional niches ( potty training, sign language, safe baby gear).
2. Find 12-24 products to fit your niche. Buy them at wholesale and sell at retail. Order in samples of each so you can try them out and get to know them before selling them. You want to be able to answer questions about the products you sell in your home business. Here are some to get started http://www.mypreciouskid.com/wholesale.html
3. Pick a business name to match your niche. Mine is www.MyPreciousKid.com I did not know when I started 8 years ago that I should have put the words "child safety" in my business name. Register this name with your state. Do this at your state site ( oregon.gov) PS Get a state trademark of your name. Get a federal trademark of your name. ( trademarks can come later but as soon you can)
4. Get a sale tax or tax "resellers number" from your state to collect sales tax.
5. Get a city/county/state business license. Make sure to follow your areas rule concerning home business. NOTE This step is important and not to be overlooked.
6. Order your domain name at www.godaddy.com Make sure the domain name matches your business name. Get the email account for your domain too. Use this domain email for ALL business emails. It puts your URL in front of every one.
7. Find a host for your site. I use handsonwebhosting. Hostgator has a great price and SEO site template builder for beginners.
8. Choose a shopping cart for your site. I use Ultracart. Mals-e.com has a free one for beginners.
9. Choose a merchant account provider so you can take credit cards. Sign up for Paypal in your business name too.
10. Get Crickets SEO ebook before you begin your site. Do it right the first time.
11. Begin building your site or have it built be someone else. Add your products to your site. Make one page on your site for each product you sell. Link from the front page to each product page. Write your own website content so it will be unique. Have pages for: products, about us, FAQ, resources, free stuff to share, and more. The more pages you have the better Google likes it.
12. Open a checking account, savings account, debit card and credit card all in your business name. Make sure ALL income goes thru this checking account. Make sure all expenses go on one of these 2 cards. Separate personal money and business money.
13. Order business cards. Vista Print has great nearly free options.
14. Work to get 5 new incoming links to your site each day. Accomplish this by link trades, writing articles, donate products for prizes online, sending products to bloggers for review, etc.
15. Read others business building articles.
16. Get accounts in your business name at Twitter (find me at http://twitter.com/MyPreciousKid) LinkedIn, DIGG, Facebook, and other social medias. Also get accounts at yahoo and gmail in your business name too so others can not take them.
17. Begin telling others about your site and products. Help them see how your products will help solve their issue. Educate people on your niche subject. Become an expert in your field.
18. Realize that it takes time and daily work to build a successful business. After 8 yrs I now have opened a retail store in town and have 3 employees.
Copyright 2009. Written by Kay Green founder of www.MyPreciousKid.com Child Safety & baby Gear Store
